Calculating Child Timeshare during a Sacramento Divorce

On behalf of Miller & Associates, Attorneys LLP on Tuesday, March 20, 2012.

Are you questioning the percentage timeshare the court used for your child support order? As a Sacramento Divorce attorney, I often times see the court having to guess as to what the actual timeshare is with mother and father when they cannot agree. The timeshare is necessary in computing an accurate child support order in your Sacramento child support case in the family law courts. Typically parties can agree on what the timeshare shall be since there is a mediation report adopted by the family law court and the parties follow the custody orders.

Sometimes Sacramento divorce litigants will be in court for a child support hearing and will either not have custody orders in place, or one parent is not following the child custody and visitation orders. In such a case, one party will likely make the argument that the timeshare should be lower for the non-custodial parent, which increases the child support for the supported party. As stated in Marriage of Katzberg, the courts have discretion in determining the percentage of “primary physical responsibility” (time-sharing) to be imputed to each parent. The time-sharing adjustment is based on the parties’ respective periods of primary physical “responsibility” for the children rather than physical “custody.” So if dad has visitation on the weekends but the child is out with his or her friends, at an event, or spending the night at a friend’s house, dad still has custody and he should get this timeshare for purposes of calculating child support.

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